South Dakota Law Enforcement Pulled Me Over And Took My Medical Marijuana Outside Flandreau’s Dispensary

Here’s a short story that happened to me a few weeks ago.

I went to the Flandreau dispensary to purchase some cannabis and upon leaving was pulled over for doing 65 in a 55. I told the officer the roads were all 65 out there, but this one mile stretch was actually 55. I don’t travel there often, I tried to use an excuse, so I thought I was doing the speed limit.

The day was super windy, like 50 mph level winds level windy. The officer leaned into my car, his elbow breaking the window pane, and asked me to get into his squad car with him while he wrote up a speeding ticket.

Even though I didn’t smell like weed, after a few minutes in the squad car, the officer asked me where my marijuana was. I said sir, you just saw me leave the dispensary as a response. He said the car and myself somehow smelled like marijuana. I said I mean dude, there’s like, 5 grams of weed in a white bag in the front seat with weed in it and a pipe, grinder, and vape pen in the center console.

He said ok, thanked me, was very polite, and apologized repeatedly telling me he was in a hard place because he had to enforce the marijuana laws, but the people voted to legalize, and he was in a hard place as a result. I said I had a medical card, and he asked me if I was the race of Native American. I said no, I’m half Iranian, and he said well, if you’re not Native, and you’re off native lands, then your skin color means you are on state property and don’t have permission to have marijuana. I was like ok, whatever, what do you want me to do?

I was placed in the back of the squad car and detained and my pocket knife was seized while a second officer and the one who pulled me over searched my car. They then removed me about 8 minutes later from the back of the car and returned me to the front seat of the squad car.

I was told first and foremost that they didn’t take all my weed. They took my white bag of marijuana from the dispensary, valued at $70, that I had just purchased, but I didn’t see them even open the bag. The bag contained 4 grams of flower and two 2 gram pre-rolled joints.

The officer was very nice. He told me he was leaving the rest of my marijuana in the car. He specifically said he left my vape pen, with a full gram of wax in the cartridge, and my grinder, with two grams of ground up preemo shit. He also left my rastafarian chalice, and told me he left those, and was not going to write me a ticket for marijuana possession but drug paraphernalia.

I was confused, as he wasn’t actually seizing any paraphernalia, only half of my weed.

I kept silent.

The officer continued on apologizing a half dozen or so times for the state of marijuana laws, at least a half dozen, and was extremely nice. We had a friendly conversation, and he wrote me a ticket for doing 60 in a 55 and said that wouldn’t affect (effect?) insurance rates that way. I said how nice of you.

I got the ticket in my hand, got back in my car, and went home. I had my pocket knife given back to me before leaving. When I got home I noticed I didn’t get a ticket for drug paraphernalia. The court date was, however, set for 4/20, or April 20.

The speeding ticket was $95. I was about to budget $20,000 to hire a lawyer and sue the municipality of Flandreau. I set out seeking for attorneys, and found a list of recommended attorneys. I set up and attended a one hour in person consultation to discuss the situation. Ultimately we decided we didn’t know if I was charged for marijuana paraphernalia, and the attorney would contact the court weekly until the court date to find out if there was anything filed.

Before hearing from the attorney, I attended a sentencing hearing for a federal crime. I was supposed to be sentenced to probation, but I filed a 16 page motion to allow an exemption for religious use of marijuana on probation. The judge told me I was making a joke of the court room, that marijuana was a gateway drug, and that he would make an example out of me. He sentenced me to one year in federal prison.

At the sentencing hearing, I read a report from my pre-sentence supervising probation officer that said that she received a phone call from the officer who pulled me over outside Flandreau.

The report said my probation officer received a phone call from the officer, who told her he pulled me over, that I readily identified where the marijuana was, that I was very polite, and that he didn’t ticket me for drug paraphernalia, just the speeding ticket.

So I found out that even though half my weed was seized, and I was detained, my medical marijuana card from Flandreau doesn’t protect me from federal laws — the use of which ultimately lead to me going to prison for a year for violating probation — and also doesn’t protect me from South Dakota state law. The tribe had already issued this news article on the subject explaining that there were legal issues for medical marijuana users due to the law being confusing to law enforcement. I just hadn’t seen the article.

I didn’t return to the dispensary in the car I was pulled over in and took my more expensive car instead for future trips. I never had an issue with law enforcement since, but it is unlawful to seize lawful contraband from a religious user of marijuana, regardless of the source of the marijuana used for sacramental ritual purposes protected under RLUIPA and the 1st amendment to the United States Constitution.

I will be filing for exemption to use marijuana on probation upon release from prison. The judge in my case called my religion a gateway drug. I think that’s discrimination, but I’m not an attorney. I don’t appreciate the lie that marijuana is a gateway drug. For a basic reality check on why marijuana isn’t a gateway drug, see the source for the gateway drug lie here — and note that it’s been so debunked nobody under the age of 80 buys it these days.

Except for tyrants who abuse the legal system that is.

Despotic tyrants making a war on certain political opinions have perverted the justice system for decades through the war on religious freedom known as the “War on culturally unacceptable drugs.”

I’m going to prison for asking to exercise my right to practice my religion.

And, cops are still stealing my religious sacrament like we live in Iran, where the government kicks down the doors of Christians gathering to read the Bible.

If I choose to read the Bible while smoking marijuana with a group I’m a card carrying member of, and the police continue to harass me for using state authorized marijuana products, I can and will follow through with all legal threats for lawsuits against all municipalities, state and federal institutions, who continue to discriminate, violate, harass and attempt to intimidate me for my private religious beliefs, chosen practices, and sanctified church rituals.

No amount of hellfire, brimstone, or curses can right the injustices of the drug war. Legalization, however, can. Standing down the tyrants through various remedies such as suing them in court may be necessary as there is no other remedy for having half your weed stolen — not every judge is a corrupt, lying miserable twat. One court case is inevitably bound to right this discrimination. But I do hate this system for what it’s doing to people. The federal government is truly evil, and, deserves every single criticism it gets — even if it tries to criminalize political dissent, it won’t succeed.